Animoca Brands, headquartered in Hong Kong, has officially announced that they’ve entered into a deal to acquire 100% of the issued capital in Pixowl for a total of $4.875 million USD. As part of that total amount, roughly $500,000 is cash with the rest being shares in shares of Animoca Brands.

Pixowl is an independent mobile game company headquartered in San Francisco, USA, with development studios in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Pixowl is focused on developing and publishing world builder games, the largest of which is the original intellectual property The Sandbox.

Available for iOS and Android devices, The Sandbox is a 2D pixel-based world creation game that is among Pixowl’s most successful titles. The game is one of the world’s largest independent user-generated content platforms and gaming ecosystems, with 40 million downloads and over one million monthly active users (MAU) who create approximately 100,000 new worlds and 25,000 new world elements every day.

Pixowl recently announced it is developing a version of The Sandbox for blockchain, expected to launch in 2019. The first milestone in late 2018 will be the launch of the world’s first marketplace for user-generated non-fungible tokens (NFTs), where players will trade game assets and monetise the time and effort they have invested playing.

All in all, this acquisition should enhance Animoca Brands‘ base and mobile development proficiency. Huge congratulations to both companies on reaching a deal.